@IOForienteering

Fifty seconds was the winning margin for the very experienced Swedish athlete Helena Jansson in today’s World Cup Middle race. She put in a near-flawless performance in technical terrain and showed that she is again in excellent physical form. Closest challenger was Natalia Gemperle, Russia.

First Ida Bobach DEN and then Lina Strand SWE set very good times, but as Strand finished it was already becoming clear that Jansson was on a flyer. Third-last to start, she caught up the 90 seconds on the previous starter, Sabine Hauswirth SUI and the two were in touch with each other from then on.

Next-last starter Natalia Gemperle also had a good run but was never close to challenging Jansson’s time. Last starter, current Middle Distance world champion Tove Alexandersson SWE, made a mistake of more than 2 minutes at control 4 and finished 14th.

Mention should be made of the Canadian athlete Emily Kemp, who looked very sharp and finished seventh, 1.58 down on the winning time.